A trio of tips: Part 2 Promotion

1. To help you plan events
2. How tos for event promos
3. Day of checklists

Advertise your events on your website and in newsletters. Partner with other groups that will help you promote in exchange for discounts to attend for their members. Give "seats" at your meeting to get cross-promotion from other organizations with similar constituencies.

Make it possible for attendees to invite their friends and colleagues to join them with an easy email link in your announcements.

Connect your event to all the major social media platforms. 

Post it to your contacts on LNKD or G+ or FB yourself. Encourage all participants-- from speakers to committee members-- to do so as well.

Promote the event often. Don't be afraid of overkill. If you planned carefully, you left yourself at least 3 weeks to launch your event. For full-day or multi-day meetings, you do need more time-- and if you planned well for these, you left nearly 6 months to advertise the programming.

Use a save-the-date announcement in advance of posting your final program listing to build anticipation and allow prospective attendees to plan to be there. 

See tip 3 here.

Consider the MEMBERS ONLY event

Programs catering to your members ONLY are a boon for any club. Their benefit for your organization are two-fold:
1. It rewards the membership, 2. It attracts prospects to join.

Free? For a price? That's up to you, but we suggest you mix it up.

Unlike a free membership, a free event for your members (only) is a nice gift.

Sponsor for free events that are also restricted to your members so that they feel appreciated.

Then hold some to pay events that are also for members only. These events will also encourage some fence-sitters to sign up as members and pay for an event. Maybe you can give these new members a "com bo" price for membership and the program.

Just remember when making offers to new members not to alienate those who have been loyal to your club over the years. Watch out for those who join only to attend one members only event. They are unlikely to renew and their interest in the group is probably tangential or limited.

Membership in many of the clubs we've managed are event-driven. At least in part, folks join to take advantage of lower-priced member rates to attend events. The discounted cost for events often can pay for the full cost of membership for the frequent fliers who come often. Make everyone aware of any other benefits, besides discounts for programs, that they get by belonging, but give them the bottom-line on savings when they do attend your events.

People join organizations for a variety of reasons; what they get out of belonging may be sentimental, career-driven or any number of other personal advantages. Your group, undoubtedly, offers tangible benefits, like retail discounts or access to specialized information.  If your benefits are unique enough to your group, they will also convert prospects to membership.

Why aren't they renewing?

Your renewal schedule, even if it's as straightforward as Jan 1 or year-to-date, is not topmost in your members' minds.

They may simplty not realize that their membership is up. This is particularly likely if they continue to get meeting announcements from you. BTW, and just between us, they should definitely stay on your mailing list even after their membership has expired.

Keeping members involved and engaged is the prinicipal goal of a membership association. You want them to renew and participate. You send announcements of events. You also email them personalized renewal notices.

You do everything you can to offer good programs, excellent benefits, a vibrant and caring organizaiton.
Yet membership attrition is a fact of life for most associations. Why?

What's one of the main reasons they don't renew at the due date? I believe it is unawareness. Your members simply aren't paying attention to when it's time for them to renew. Or more importantly when their membership will and has expired.

Can it be that many of your members are ignoring your emails? They probably saw the first one that said they had another thirty days of membership left. They put that aside, and then forgot. They got some more notices, but in the course of their normal business they found these easy to dismiiss.

Once enough time passed between the past due renewal notices and daily life, your lapsed member looked upon himself as a member of the organization's community. He was seeing weekly flyers about upcoming programs; he was still on the list.

Time for you to do one of two things: threaten to cut off all communication if s/he did not renew in 10 days?
A bit harsh. Send a survey request to explain why s/he did not renew their membership.

Include the question that requests action: [  ] I did not know my membership lapsed. I'll go renew right now. Link that second sentence to your renewal pages, of course.

When Walk-ins Are a No-No

At the door registrants make it difficult for your volunteers, and some venues will not accept walk-ins to their facility In the cases where a venue is adamant about its security policies, you can assure that there will not be walk-ins by not publishing the venue on your invitations and announcements.  In such cases, it is also a good idea to close registration earlier, say a day ahead of the event because you will need to send an email to all the registrants telling them where to go the day before an event.  Why the day before? So your attendees can plan and know where they are going and so you can be comfortable that they got the venue information in time.   When building security issues do not allow you to accept at-the-door registrants, you have an excuse to control attendance.   Keeping in mind that in many cases at the door registration is difficult to manage, even when a venue allows for it, it is a good policy to discourage on-site walk-in traffic by either not publishing a venue or by charging a lot more for anyone showing up at the door. Security is not the only issue that makes walk-in registration tough. On site staff or volunteers also have to work harder keeping pace with at the door registrants.

Programming for Special Interests

Not every event on your schedule has to be a block buster.

While big splashy and well-attended events are great, making the planner feel   like the best host in town, your organization should accommodate the special interests of members of your group. There is room on the event planning calendar of your organization for smaller programs. Targetting segments of your constituency is also a member benefit. Your association's willingness to foresake the broad appeal shows that you want to benefit everyone in the group.

Let Sponsors Help With Expenses

Sponsors have the opportunity to show your members that they are good guys who support your club and its mission. The sponsor or sponsors for an event have access to your members' attention. We do not recommend that you give a sponsor access to your membership files or data, but do give them recognition when you advertise an event. Use their logo on your web site, and in flyers announcing the program. Your association will attract sponsors who want to do business with your members. Make it easy for a sponsor to help you by: Defining the need for sponsorship more closely.  Ask for specific contributions-- for the venue for the cocktail reception before an event for the networking reception after the event for the speaker gifts for speaker travel for a private reception with a distinguished speaker after the event for a capital project for a series of events  Stress what the sponsor will get from your association by telling him-- how many members and associates will see the sponsoring logo; the size of the distribution of your announcements; how many recorded views are there on your web site; how many attendees you expect at this event. Make sure you have a top-caliber chair for your sponsorship committee who is willing and has the time to make those phone calls and contacts to solicit the help of companies that serve your membership.  Sponsorship can help keep your association's finances healthy. Don't forget to acknowledge a sponsor's contribution!

What do I charge for my event?

Do you want to charge the same for every event?  Consistent pricing, like a consistent location, is great if you can amortize your costs over all your programs.  Don't forget that you'll want to favor your members in whatever pricing structure you use, so factor in the discount when looking at your costs.   How much should you charge? What will attract attendance? Is there a price point that might be prohibitive? Do you want to charge the same for all your events?  Have you calculated all your costs-- venue, speaker fees or travel expenses, catering?  Look for sponsors to help out with overhead costs. If your host venue is offering you space for free, but you need to pay for catering, negotiate in advance to keep your costs down. Be specific as to what you'll need. Lunch? Buffet, or served? Hot or cold food? Snacks? Wine, beer, soft drinks or Cocktails? In fact, even if your host is footing the bill, you need to be specific about what you expect from them.   Once all the details are established, pricing your event is a simple matter of budgeting.

Pricing your event: weigh your costs vs the value your members will get from attending. Knowing how many people to expect helps you plan the final details that make an event great You've planned well. There's plenty of time to spread the word and build excitement. Now you need to plan on how many will come to fill your room. How many registrants will we see at our event? Even when we demand prepayment for an event, there will be some folks who have last minute commitments that pull them away. There is bound to be a 10% or so drop off from the expected number of attendees. As a matter of good policy, you want to urge attendees to sign up early.  "Space is limited" only goes so far.It is used so often that it might not be suspect.  Much higher prices for a walk-in to attend your event is both a carrot and a stick.   Just as some people will not be able to come at the last minute, some people will want to show up at the last minute. There will always be walk-ins. The real issue for planning is gauging the walk-in rate. Keeping walk-ins to a minimum makes it easier to plan for food, seating, printing of take-aways.   [See "As a matter of good policy..." above.]     If your policy is not to insist on prepayment, you can still encourage it by charging a higher rate at the door.  You want to give even preregistered attendees the incentive to show up.  Some venues, especially if you are holding events in donated corporate space, discourage walk-ins because they create issues for their security desks. If you charge more at the door than you do for pre-paid registrants, you will find that you can keep walk-ins to a minimum. Asking for pre-payment is also asking for a commitment from the attendee. Most people will make the effort to attend something for which they have already paid. Discourage walk-ins unless your event and venue is extremely flexible.

Program to Keep Things Lively!

Since interesting programming drives membership, your association has to put on excellent events!

The goal of engaging members in your organization is met and managed by your programs committee and event chairs. Planning is key, of course.  High profile, good quality speakers often have a full-plate of engagements. They need to be courted months in advance. Try not to have to pay for their services however prominent they may be.  Offer access to your own high-profile, quality membership rather than fees as compensation to speakers and panelists.   You may have to pay for travel expenses for a much in demand speaker. Plan on giving the speaker or panelists a gift. Venues, too, can be procured on a quid pro quo basis. Many firms that cater to your members will be glad to have so many potential clients attend a meeting in their shop. As with the speaker(s), you will need to secure a space well in advance of the date you have set to hold the program. We have had clients who chose to hold all  their meetings at the same location. This can be good since  members always know where to go. It offers consistency both in location and in the service you can expect from the venue. However, in most cases, it probably means you will need to pay for the use of the space. For instance, one of our clients has had the good fortune to have a "sponsoring" venue for a series of the events they've held.  They have not had to pay for the space or the catering to hold any of their programs.  Many venues, with a clear connection to your association, may be jealous of the opportunity to host an event for you.  If you are paying for catering or the space, you have a little more flexibility in terms of planning. You want to be sure that the space is available for your meeting, so keep in mind that a good location, like a good speaker, should be booked well in advance.  Let's review what's involved in planning for a Great Event. Even if this is a regularly scheduled program, or one of many you'll hold in the month, you must plan ahead: Secure a presenter or panel who will speak to your members' interests; Find a space that will accommodate the kind of crowd your speaker will draw; Look at your costs in pricing out the event; Advertise the event to your members, your colleagues and theirs; Planning well in advance makes putting on distinguished programs so much easier.